Exploring the history of Pargana Chail , Kara Manikpur and the Doaba region in Allahabad, UP , India ----------------------Never throughout history has a man who lived a life of ease left a name worth remembering.

Monday, January 21, 2013

Niwan - Pargana Chail

Mosque at Neewan

Neewan Now

Upon entering the village

View of the stream (Ganges ) from the Kothi

Kothi in Allahabad

The Subway in Niwan directly to Ganga

Crumbling & Desolate

Carved Slab with Chronogram 1318 Hijri

View from the top

Inside view of the Hall

Garhi

Morning view ....Animals towards Ganga

Outward view of the Terrace

Hell Broke Loose !

Another view of Hall

Wooden Roof of the hall

Chandeliers in the hall

Carvings

Carved Stone

abandoned doorways !

Staircase

Another Ganges view

Kothi from the outside

Hall from Above

Sham bhi thi duwan dhuwan

the main-gate of the complex

Bagh Pukhta ( Ancestral Graveyard)

Mazar of Peer Mahmood Shaheed RA)

Dr. Aijaz at the gate of Cemetry 10 years back & today a buffalo was tied

With Anees Fatima (The present occupant at Niwan)

With Sibghatullah & Saifullah

Shaikh M. Abbas in Calcutta

Printed Postcard in the name of Shaikh Abbas

With Zain, Azeem and Nabeel

Inside the ancestral graveyard ........

Neewan ( Niwan)

Location

Umarpur Niwan
as it is known in the revenue records is a large village lying along the Ganges
very close to the cantonment and military farms in the City of Allahabad. Today
Niwan falls under the Kaurihar block in Tehsil Sadar of Allahabad whereas it
has always been in Pargana & Tehsil Chail in the past.The village is located
on the west bout 5 KM / 3 miles away from the head-quarters of Main City.

It was the
largest village in Pargana Chail in terms of Population as per the 1951 census.
It had 7362 persons in total with Non-Scheduled Classes at 3952 persons.

District Gazetteer of Allahabad (1911) says

Originally the
Zamindars of Niwan owned the lands as far as from the boundaries of Sarai Salem
including Meera Patti till the Kachhar of Ganges. In between all the hamlets,
Purwas were under the ownership of zamindars of Niwan. Like Yadavpur, Ramman ka
Purwa, Saraiyyan, Bhola ka Purwa, Taad Bagiya, Abubakarpur , Pritam Nagar, Jayantipuram , etc
etc .

Book ;The Imperial
Gazetteer of India,

Author: Sir William Wilson Hunter,Gazetteers of
British India, 1833-1962

PublisherTrübner & co., 1887

In
the north-west, close to Niwan Village, there is a large lake kncwn as Niwan
Tal artificially made by damming the mouth of a long ravine at its outlet into
the Ganga. In the southwest, an extensive area is utilised as a military dairy
farm. Originally there was a Macpherson Park and the Lake was also named after
him. Later on Nehru Park was established.

Macpherson
Lake which was once the prime attraction of the city has over a period of time
got filled with weeds and polluted water, owing to flow of untreated sludge as
also drainage water into it, which further gets discharged into the Ganges.

It
is noteworthy that a considerable part of the present cantonment was also owned
by Niwan Zamindars which was acquired for the cantt after the 1857 uprising.

Title : The local roots of Indian politics:
Allahabad, 1880-1920

Author :Christopher Alan Bayly

Publisher : Clarendon Press, 1975

Name

The name of
the village is Umarpur Neewan.
It is reported that when the Zamindars took over the village around 300 years ago,
they founded four hamlets around and named
it after the four Khulafa of Islam. The four villages were:-

Abu
Bakrpur – inhabited

Umarpur - inhabited, famous as Neewan

Usmanpur - included in the farms

Alipur - included in the military
farms.

Niwan
has also been spoken as Nimah among
the locals.

History

Niwan is
indeed an old village and it was inhabited by the Ray/Thakurs who lived there
under the local kings. The head-quarter was on the top of the hill on the east
of the village which is still known as Garhi.
People have found earthen wares, brass-wares and sometimes the old coins around
the Garhi whenever they had a digging
or when the slopes open in the rainy season. A coin of Alaudddin Khilji
found here was with a family in Neewan.

Around 300 years
ago, Peer Mahmood Shaheed (also known as Isma’il) came here from Behka
and took over the village after an armed skirmish with the villagers and the
local magnates. The slain locals were interred in a place that was known as Gar-Gaj while the triumphant ones buried
their Shuhada in Ganj Shihidan known
as Takiya. This place serves as the cemetery
of the Zamindars of Niwan to this day.

Here you find the
enclosure of the graves including the mazar of Peer Mahmud Shaheed inside with other graves of his
descendents.

During the
1857 uprising, after the British regained the control, the people ran for their
life here and there and in the course since Niwan was closer to the city , the
village was filled with people of all caste creed and religion from the city of
Allahabad when they were chased, brutally tortured or murdered by the british
for their “supposed share” in the “Revolt”….Even British platoons came here to
capture the “Culprits several times. This time people from Niwan too migrated
to elsewhere inside the countryside. The Zamindars and their familes took
shelter in Asrawe & Bisauna etc and they lived there for six months, after
the British proclamation of promising unconditional pardon, people returned to
their houses in Niwan. That was a difficult period indeed. See excerpt below.

Title Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars: North Indian
Society in the Age of British Expansion, 1770-1870

Author C. A. Bayly

Nasab

The entire lot
of the erstwhile zamindars of Neewan is Shaikh of Siddiqi branch. They share
their Shajrah-i-Nasb with the Shaikhs of Behka.

You would have
read about Shaikh Habeeb-ullaah
Siddiqi of Behka who had few sons. One of his grand sons was Shaikh
Mahmood Urf Ismail Sahib who left Behka and settled in Niwan and who should
be rightly called the forefather of the Shaikhs of Neewan.

Familes

Niwan was owned
,distributed & divided equally into three thoks by the elders of the Shaikh
Siddiqis as Thok Muhammad Amin, Thok Muhammad Panah and Thok Muhammad Gahiya.
Now let us see who all came form these thoks.

There was a
family of Pathans as well who was last represented by Aladad Khan s/o Kallu
Khan who had some shares in Zamindari by way of Purchases.

Thok Mohammad Ameen

Mah Miyan was
supposedly the first person when Thoks were established and he was followed by
Jan Muahmmad ( Jam Ali ) and Jamiyyat Ali :-

The
descendents of Jam Ali are Yar
Muhammad who had three sons namely Shaikh Muhammad , Ali Muhammad and
Maulana Shah Abdul Haq,

From Ali
Muhammad
are Abdul Razzaq , Abdul Jaleel, Abdul Azeez and Abdullah. From Abdul
Razzaq came Abdul Khaliq who migrated to Neem Sarai and his son was Safat Alam
who is the father of Kafeel Ahmad (Phillu Wakeel) at Neem Sarai. || Abdul
Jaleel had Ahmad Saeed who had Hafiz Muhammad Ahmad who was the father of Manzar-ul-Islam
(Advocate) and Zameer-ul-Islam ||| Abdul Azeez migrated to Mahgaon and
his son was Abdul Hai and then his sons were Abrar & Anzar who has Zafar
Ahmad. | From Abdullah came Kareemullah and then Aleemullah who too
migrated to Mahgaon and his sons are Mahfooz Ahmad, Mamoon Ahmad
(Pak) & Haroon.

The above-mentioned Jamiat Ali had his son
Turab Ali migrated to Abubakarpur
and his descendents are still living in Abubakarpur. Details will follow.

Late Wasiullah Advocate

Thok
Mohammad Panah

Mohammad Panah
had Ghulam Ali and then Dayanat Ali who had Amanat Ali Urf Miyan Jan, Karamat
Ali Urf Kammu ,Arshad Ali Urf Manna - Then Amanat had Ali Jan , Kammu had Sifat
Ali who had Gulzar Mohammad & Mohammad Moosa who was the father of M.Khalid
Niwani , the famous professor in Economics at Allahabad. Arshad Ali had
Muslehuddin, Fatehuddin, Hakimuddin. The family of Gulzar Mohammad and his sons
Shameem & Naseem , Aijaz migrated in 1947. Muslehuddin had Aleemuddin while
Fatehuddin had Zafaruddin who have M.Shoaib and Asif.

The family of
Muhammad Ashraf who had Nemat ashraf and Mahboob Ashraf etc are also from Niwan

There were
other familes in Thok Panah that are not recorded properly (i)because they went
without any male issue like , Meer Ali who had Taigh Ali and Shamsher ali and
Khizr Ali who had only one daughter. (ii) they migrated without any trace ,
like the family of Faiyaz u lHaq, Ramzan Ali , Abdul Rahman, Abdul Wahhab,
Jawwad, Mohammad Raza, Manna etc etc.

Thok Mohammad Gahiya

This Thok was imitated with Mohammad Gahya
who married outside the Biradari and went
out of the record. Similarly the family of Lal Muhammad who had
Ehsanullah & Ikramullah also have no records whatsoever.

The third one
was Tikey Miyan who had Khoobullah then Murad Ali who had Meer Ali & Ghulam
Ali. All of them went without any male heir but started adoption as the means
to protect the property and name and this created the unique combine of Mamu-Bhanja that became the biggest
aristocratic family of Pargana Chail in the years to come.

Ghulam Ali’s
sister was married in Bansa-Baghara to Ramzan Ali , his son was Shaikh Abdul
Samad who was adopted by Ghulam Ali to Inherit his entire business &
Zamindari in Allahabad. Now Abdul Samad married and had sons who died without
any living ssue and thus Abdul Samad had no choice but to adopt his sisters son
, Sayyid Muhammad Isa ( Nawab Isa ) who was the son of Meer Hatim Husain of
Asrawe kalan.

Prof SM Ahsan was a professor of English in Osmania University Hyderabad and he had settled there permanently. After the death of Nawab Isa, he became
the the co owner of inhereted assets and managing trusttee . He left all his share to Syed M.
Hashim and returned to Hyderabad. There were intra family litigations as well.Dr.SM Aijaz did his P.hd from Arkansas University and is settled in US. His son Dr.Asim Aijaz is a specialist medical practitioner there.Dr. SM Ikram after doin B.Sc from Allahabad in 1952 went on to complete his MBBS from KGMC (Lucknow ) and later on migrated to Pakistan. His son SM Amir is a pediatrician in US.

Nawab Isa had two
brothers as well namely Sayyid Umar and Sayyid Ibrahim (No male
heir).

Sayyid Umar had 3 sons – Sayyid
Farooq ,Sayyid Zafar and Sayyid Usman(No Issue).Farooq had Sayyid
Muhammad Salman Urf Pasha whose wife Anees Fatima is the present occupant at Kothi,
Neewan while Sayyid Zafar was the father of Sayyid Muhammad Ashyam
who is the present occupant at Kothi,Allahabad.

Migrations

To Neem
Sarai

Abdul Khaliq
s/o hafiz Abdul Razzaq migrated to Neem Sarai . Today this family is known for
Kafeel Ahmad (Phillu Wakeel) who has Asif Kafeel.

To Mahgaon

Abdul Hai & Abdul Salam sons of Hafiz Abdul Aziz
of Niwan migrated to Mahgaon in their in-laws , Abdul
Hai had Anzar and Abrar Ahmad. Anzar
Ahmad has Zafar Ahmad who migrated to Pak. This family initially was engaged in and
established a Madarsa Azizia in
Mahgaon which was fairly successful and was a govt aided madarsa and had two
buildings in Mahgaon but it is history now. Hakeem Abdul Salam was a qualified Hakeem and he practicsed
in Amethi (Rai Bareli) for some time. He erected a mosque there that is known
as Hakim Ji ki Masjid in Amethi.

Shaikh
Aleemullah
of Niwan migrated to Mahgaon since his father in law Hakim Abdul Salam
had also migrated to Mahgaon.He was an enlightened & God Fearing person.
His sons are Haroon Ahmad (Died Young) ,Mahfooz Ahmad and Mamoon Ahmad (Pak)in Mahgaon. Mahfooz Ahmad is the present care-taker of the Main Mosque at
Mahgaon.

From Asrawe Kalan

Similarly the
sons of Meer Hatim Husain of Asrawe
Kalan inherited and shifted to Neewan and virtually became the masters of
the village. Nawab Isa and his brothers Sayyid Umar and Ibrahim are already
discussed above under Thok Muhammad Gahiya.

Zamindari

The village was under the sole proprietorship
of the Zamindars of Neewan since but in 1841 an interesting chapter was added,
when Khuda Bakhsh Buchad(Butcher), resident of Meerut, purchased the entire village at
the cost of 865 Rupees in 1214 Hijri ( A.D). Then he deputed a cruel Gumastha
to collect the Lagan. The Gumashta and the general treatment from Buchad was so
harsh and cruel that all the zamindars now repented having sold their entire
share. Luckily after a small fight , the matter went into court and from there
went into federal court at Calcutta and the almost the entire village was returned
to the Zamindars except the family of Shaikh Ghulam Ali.

During the British
period after the permanent settlement ,the village was returned and shown to be
entirely owned (16 annas ) by the Shaikhs of Niwan. They divided the
lands equally into three thoks:-

Thok Mohammad Panah

Thok Mohammad Ameen

Thok Mohammad Gahiya

1 With the
passage of time , Thok Panah and Ameen started selling the lands to the
zamindars of Thok Gahiya and gradually they became the most powerful of
Zamindars in Neewan. I will discuss the names & families in detai.

At the time of
abolition of Zamindari in 1952, each thok had 2 Annas & 8 pie share left
while the family of Nawab Isa had 8.5 annas in Niwan.

There is least
doubt that during the last century from 1880 – 1952, the Biggest Zamindar in
Pargana Chail was Shaikh Abdul Samad
of Neewan and His nephew Sayyid Muhammad Isa (Nawab Isa) continued to be the
biggest revenue payer till the end of the Zamindari in Chail.

Gazetteer of Allahabad (1911) says :

People of Niwan

Shaikh Ghulam Ali & Karim Bux

Shaikh Ghulam
Ali was the patriarch who laid the foundation of the business along with his nephew Karim Bux in Calcutta
that grew in his life time so much as he was counted amongst the business tycoons in Calcutta at the end of the 18th Century. His story is a perfect
example of “Rags-to-Riches” as he lived in Niwan without any job but when he
moved to Calcutta to earn a living , the entire village was sold to the Buchad
including his share. And later on after a prolonged legal battle when the village was restored to the original Zamindars ,
he was absent and unaware of the legal proceedings ,could not get his share
back. Thus he was ridiculed and was once reportedly spurned out from the mosque
in Niwan for being without a Zameen.Humiliated at the
hands of his local kinsmen , he went to Calcutta in the Mid 1860s and picked up a
job in a local leather factory but this time he was a changed man. He was an ambitious Ghulam Ali this time, he
did not forget the humiliation and also that his paternal lands have been taken
away from him. He vowed that he would not return to Niwan unless he has land in
the village and till then he had no right
to live in Neewan as he had no farming / lands there.

Ghulam Ali
toiled night & day and became a supervisor with the local tannery who was
owned by a British. next he became the
manager of the production Unit and then the In-charge of the entire unit. Things
are not very clear today but within a span of 10 years Ghulam Ali converted himself
into being an owner of his own leather producing factory. He further ventured
into the snake, crocodile leather which took him into leaps & bounds and
his export grew miraculously. Soon he returned to Neewan and found the existing
zamindars in heavy debts, desperately looking for a buyer to purchase their
shares and from 1870 started the buying spree , the first two villages that he
bought was Sallahpur & Tiwara. Nobody in Pargana Chail had the courage to
buy these two villages in 1870 but he bought it full in Cash and from that day started the buying spree of this family that went on till 1930s carried on by his successors……
Ghulam Ali constructed a Mosque at Neewan and another at Kolhu Tola ,Calcutta,
purchased a dozen of Buildings, erected a large mansion to live in Calcutta. He
spent lacs of rupees in throwing lavish parties which were held twice a year
to the elite of Calcutta and hundreds of people aspired to be invited to his
Dawats.

In short
Ghulam Ali reached an enviable stage in a very short span of time and vindicated
his love for Neewan by purchasing /increasing his shares in Pargana Chail.

He died in
1871 in Calcutta and was buried in Bagh
Pukhta, Niwan , which was erected in his memory by his nephew( Sister’s
son) Shaikh Abdul Samad who
succeded him by adoption.

Later on a
boundary was erected with beautiful trees were grown in rows with a room &
porch, a well to enjoy the weather as well. This is known as Pukhta Bagh in
Niwan.

His nephew (
brother’s son)was Karim Bakhsh
who actually lived in Calcutta for 30 years and died in 1898 at Allahabad. He
also helped him in his business and Karim Baksh too had an separate business established in Calcutta which dealt in
snake & crocodile leather that was exported to Europe

Ghulam Ali

|

Abdul Samad (Sister’s son from Baghara)

|

Nawab Isa (Sister’s son; s/o Hatim Husain of
Asrawe Kalan).

|

Nawab Hashim
( s/o Nawab Isa ,No Issue)

Muhammad Hashim (Nawab ) in 1950

Shaikh Abdul Samad

Shaikh Abdul
Samad
was the son of Shaikh Ramzan Ali of Bansa
Baghara (a village on the banks of Ganges that was devastated in 1857 and a
nearby place was replaced as Baghara). He was adopted by Shaikh Ghulam Ali as a
child and used to live in Niwan. He inherited his maternal Uncle’s property in his
teens but his youth did not deter him from learning and going ahead with his
ambitions. He acquired vast practical knowledge about Zamindari and started
purchasing shares & villages since 1870s unilaterally till his death in
1914. He was the one who actually He had such an authoritative say and enjoyed
such an enviable position amongst the Zamindars of Allahabad that very few
could surpass him at that time. From two villages he increased the no. of
shares in at least 50 villages in his life.

He was a disciplined
person and he managed the Tannery at Calcutta with Zamindari in 30/40 villages
at Allahabad simultaneously with equal efficiency. He was a hard task-master
but with a tender heart. He was a philanthropist and donated large sums to the charitable causes throughout his life.
From AMU to the Orphanage in Allahabad, he did not stop from contributing
towards the community issues….

He was
unfortunate in terms of having father three sons out of which none could
survive or leave a male heir. He had three sons Muhammad Abbas ( Pictured above
), Muhammad Ilyas and M. Fayyaz. All of
them got married had children but none could survive. This tragedy had a major
impact in the later years on the life of Shaikh Abdul Samad. The Great zamindar
of Niwan whose diktat ran over the people and their lives, was suddenly reduced
to a man living in a big, crumbling zamindari house , silent.

He was
dejected, disappointed and disillusioned with the material life but the could
not entirely detach himself as there was no one to take care of the large
empire he had gathered from Calcutta to Allahabad. Thus he dedicated himself to
religious activities and entrusted all his estate in Waqf in 1907 and passed
away in 1914 leaving his adopted nephew Sayyid Muhammad Isa as mutawalli /in
charge of all that he had by that time.

A random list
of his holdings in Chail only (out of Chail are not included.) in 1911. He had
added a lot more villages after and the record of which is not available with
me.

Akbarpur Sallahpur - Entire

Ismailpur –

Kotwa

Hashimpur Chhabilepur

Tiwara - Entire

Payagpur

Mirpur

Qadirpur Newada

Shaikh Sarwa

Umarpur Niwan

Gopalpur

Ghauspur

Umarchha

Muhiuddipur Ghaus

Koriya

Noorpur

Gauhani

Tikri

Chak Payagpur

Pawan -

Medwara

Jaraini

Lalapur

Purchased / Constructed /Managed the following by
the end of 1910

He had few
houses at Hammam, few in Sarai Gadhi and other few buildings in Nakhas Kohna
and Chowk. Further he owned large leather factory apart from about a dozen
other buildings in Calcutta. He had to take care of a lot of mosques in
Allahabad apart from the ones at Niwan and at Kolhu Tola , Calcutta.

He was the one
who actually helped the Madarsa Subhania at Sarai Gadhi to establish and funded
the madarsa entirely for a number of years. Apart from this he contributed
towards the cause of Aligarh Universtiy, the Orphanage in Allahabad and the
Madarsa at Makkah al Mukarramah quite substantially.

And a host of
other establishment and institutions that is no use to enumerate all here.

Nawab Sayyid Muhammad Isa of Niwan

Nawab Sayyid Muhammad Isa

Sayyid Muhammad Isawas the son of
Meer Hatim Husain of Asrawe Kalan. He was adopted by his maternal uncle Shaikh
Abdul Samad to succeed and take care of his business and zamindari at Calcutta & Allahabad respectively. He
was an educated person and ardent supporter for the national causes , too keen
interest in national issues and helped a lot of movements financially. He was
made a 1st Class honorary Magistrate and was awarded the title of
Khan Bahadur by the Govt of British India. He died in 1941 was survived by his
four sons………Sayyid Muhamad Liaqat, Ahsan, Aijaz & Dr.Ikram. He is mentioned in Bayly's "Local Roots of Indian Politics as well as in the " The City in South Asia as follows:-

Title The City in South Asia: pre-modern and modern

AuthorKenneth Ballhatchet

PublisherCurzon Press, 1980

Waqf Haji Sheikh Karim Bux

Sheikh Karim
Bux was the nephew of Shaikh Ghulam Ali who executed a waqf Ind’Allah (i.e., in
the name of Allah) on September 8, 1886 of his share of properties, valued
at Rs. 1,03,150 which included zamindari property and houses specified and
bounded, the mutawallis were required to make expenses on objects set out in
the second schedule to the deed. Headwise details are as under:

I am reproducing herein below the Will for the Waqf of Shaikh Karim Bux of Niwan that tells of the concerns , way of thinking of the people in the past.By the way Shaikh Karim Bux was a common man and his will tells give us an idea of the mind-set of the people of that generation.

Quantum of expenditure1

Expenses relating to mosque and musafir-khana, appertaining to the mosque situate in village Umarpur Niwan, Pargana Chail, together with expenses over the visitors to the mosque, other necessary expenses such as arrangements for water and farah, etc., repairs to the mosque and musafir khana, and if any of them falls, its reconstruction

Pay and subsistence for the teacher for the education of the children and others and any one desirous of education.

Seven Dogas of cotton to be made and distributed to the poor in winter

Annual Maulood Sharif to be organized

For persons staying in Mecca per details given therein.

Expenses on occasion of Id for the poor, etc

Pay and subsistence for Hafiz Quran at the mosque in the village, Niwan, for leading prayers for five times a day. Calling Azan five times and giving education to children desirous of reading Quran

Repairs to the grave of Hazi Sheikh Ghulam Ali, decreased

For the funeral expenses

According to the need

Maulana Shah Abdul Haq Muhajir Makki (Rahmatullahi Alaihi)

The brightest
gem that Niwan produced is in the form of Shaikh-al-Dalayil Mawlana Shah
Abdul Haq Muhajir Makki Rahmatullahi Alayhi.

We, the
Chailis seem and found to be basically against the learning (ilm) and also
against the traditions of learning (Ilm-o-Fazl) , similarly we DO NOT recognize
and venerate if there by change comes any person of knowledge in our eyes and
the proof of our ignorance, anti-learning attitude is that we do not know , we
do not remember , we do not cherish the memory of the excepted few who excelled
in in any department related to ilm o
Fazl . today I think there are less than 1% of Chaili who could even tell
the name of such a scholar of high standing that Niwan should be proud of…………I
am talking about Maulana Shah Abdul
Haq Mahajir Makki.

Maulana Shah Abdul Haq Sahib was the
son of Shah Muhammad of Niwan of
Thok Muhammad Ameen. His father did different business at different times at
different places. During one of his pursuits at Rasda (then in Gorakhpur) he
married a lady there and from this marriage he had Mawlana Shah Abdul Haq.

Shah Abdul Haq
was born in Niwan in 1253 AH/1836 AD. After initial studies at Allahabad he was
sent to study at the feet of Ulama-i-Firangi mahal, especially Mawlana Turab
Ali Lakhnawi (D.1281 AH). Thereafer he proceeded to Delhi for further education
, there he learnt hadeeth from Shaikh Qutub-ud-Din Muhaddis Dehalvi (RA)and from
other Ulama as well.

He had already
taken a Bai’yat’ at the hands of Shah Abdullah Gorakhpuri
(RA) in Naqshbandia Tariqa and in 1283
AH he migrated to Hijaz ,performed Hajj and got benefitted with the company of Shaikh
Abdul Ghani Muhaddis Dehalvi when he lived with him in Madinah al
Munawarrah for 4 years.

Finally he
settled at Makkah al Mukarramah permanently and for about half a century he
delivered Dars / Lectures on Tafseer, Hadees and Tasawwuf in which Ulama and Mashaikh from all over the world used to be present and
learnt from him the knowledge of Quran & Hadees. Haji Imdadullah Mahajir
Makki (RA) was also a friend of him.

People
especially took permission of Dalail al
Khairat from him and this way he was known all over as Shaikh ul Dalail Makki. Amongst the notable who took Ijazat of
Dalail from him was Maulana Ahmad Raza Khan of Bareilly as well who went to see
Shah Abdul Haq during his second Hajj.

He wrote few
books as well. He wrote Siraj us Salikin as a translation of Minhaj ul Abideen of Imam Ghazali and spent
30 years to write an Arabic commentary on Tafseer
Madarik al Tanzeel of Abdullah Nasfi which has been published in seven
volumes entitled as Al Akleel Alaa
Madarik al Tanzeel wa Haqaiq al Taweel. He was also the reviewer of Dawlat
al Makkiyyah. There are few more notes/books written by him like Taleeqat al Durrul Mukhtar.‘Al-Durr al-Munazzam fi Mawlid al-Nabiy al-A`zam’ about celbrating Maulid.

He passed away
on 19, Shawwal, 1333 AH /1915 AD in Makkah and was laid to rest in Jannatul
Ma’ala. Rahmatullahi Alaihi in Makkah. He did not marry and hence no issue went
on. His brothers’ progenies are found in Pargana Chail.

Today

Today the
strong past on Niwan is attacking its present and the future seems to have been
lost in the quagmire.

Only two
families from the original stock are living in Neewan today. The family of
Janab Manzar ul Islam lives in Allahabad and similarly the family of Late
Wasiullah Sb Advoctate is also in the city. A family is in Neem Sarai another
in Mahgaon……..and that’s all.

The family of
Khalid Niwani is at Kareli and their original branches have migrated way back in the
50s.By the time I sat down to write about Niwan ,Nadeem , the son of Professor
Khalid has also expired.

Ironically one
of the well-known Niwanis of Allahabad i.e Faseeh Niwani , the ex-corporator is
infact not a Niwani . His grand-father was from Chail Khas and he
settled in his nanihal at Niwan.

Neewanis are
few and difficult to count but their historical grandeur and awe of their
erstwhile zamindari still resounds and echoes are to be heard………..

I am grateful
to Janab Manzar-ul-Islam Sahib Advocate and Mr.Sibghatullah S/o Late Wasiullah Sahib Advocate for their help and
guidance that made the journey and quest memorable. Janab Manzarul Islam was initially employed
in Railways which he left in 1961 to practice independently as a lawyer. He is
profoundly attached to his native place and tries to collect, recollect the
memories related to the village. Similarly he is too much enthusiastic about Mawlana Shah Abdul Haq and intends to
collect his books as well.

Seat of Power

Niwan has really something to do with Power and corridors of power. Once the biggest
zamindar of the land lived in Niwan , he ruled like any other
zamindar. After the Zamindari abolition Late Dharamveer (Cong) who was a Union
minister belonged to Raman Ka purwa , a hamlet of Niwan, two of his sons are still part of the power corrider today, MLA from Soraon
Satyaveer is his son while his brother & senior SP leader Shailendra
Kumar is a two times MP from Chail parliamentary seat.

Apart from This Kesri Nath Tripathi a Seniro BJP leader is also from
Niwan Village. Today Puja Pal MLA who represents the Allahabad West constituency is also from
Niwan.

Thus we see that Niwan and Power go hand in hand……..

Mahal ( Kothi at Niwan)

The mansion in Niwan , now known as Mahal ,
was constructed by Shaikh Abdul Samad on the occasion of the marriage of Shaikh Muhammad Abbas, his eldest son in 1899 right on the banks of
River Ganges and it is by all means one of most
exquisite & ravishing place I have seen so far in any village found on the
banks of a river.

There is a
popular but very SAD legend associated with the construction of this building
that when the foundation of this building was laid down on the banks, (the
sandy banks and the soil collected by Ganges ) it could not withstand or survive
even for a day and thus the construction could not take off at all for a month.They
tried to lay the foundation but it was swayed or found crumbled the next
morning. They toiled hard for the foundation throughout the day and it was found to be washed away the next
morning.

Disturbed with
the continous failure, some Sooth-sayers or astrologists suggested the builder to offer a Neenv Bali( Foundation Sacrifice) in the
human form and the stories say that a young boy was sacrificed/buried at the foundation place of this building and
after that the Foundation not only withstood or was found intact after
the Bali but the construction started as well and
the building got ready in a span of one and half year.

I do not know
whether it is true or not and I would say in Persian Darogh Bar Gardan-i-Raavi (
The Truth of falsehood of the story rests on the narrator, I am not answerable
for the truth in it ).

Ravaged by the
vagaries of time, the haveli still echoes the past with remnant traces of
grandeur and aristocracy.

This building
was later known as Kothi and was indeed a massive structure inside an enclosure having
large courtyards, forts like ramparts, Chaubara, Main Hall, Places for darban,
Masjid , it seems that master craftsmen from Rajasthan were commissioned for the
buildings because I found some signs of intricately carved wooden doors, quaint
Jharokhaas , and the beautifully ornate carvings on the walls are still partly
visible.

The Exquisite designs
are in the miidle of the lower half of the wall, and an intricately carved
central wooden beam supports the ceiling of the central hall. The old majestic
lifestyle showcases even today in the architecture of the Kothi which was built
to look distinct and fascinating than any other buildings.

The wooden
beams on a wall here and some broken windows and arches there remind the old
timers of a beautiful place with the river in the background , Its a dream location indeed. The stairs around the main entrance used to
be the way up to the first floor and then the terrace, which had a grand view
of the Ganges. The well-appointed guard
rooms to the gate too is just a memory, now.

Beautifully
carved mirrors and a dozen of magnificent chandeliers adorn the hall of the
haveli. According to people, the haveli glowed and sparkled like gold in the
evenings when all these lamps and chandeliers were lit in all its massive rooms
spread over such a huge area.

The Building would
have continued to be an object of aspiration even today but Alas , for the carelessness
and the intricate internal feud have marred everything there.

There is a
subway from inside the building that goes directly to the Ganges. Today the
building has more snakes and Jinns than human being. The silence was so
perfect that assumingly the faint hiss of a snake would sound like a shriek.

There was a
large Ghadiyal (Gong) that was struck
to announce the time 24 hours for almost half a century which is now ruined.
Its sound was heard far and wide outside the village.

Shaikh Abdul
Samad was unfortunate in terms of having fathered three sons but his line got dead.
None of his sons could survive or leave a male heir for the succession. He had three
sons namely Muhammad Abbas (Pictured above), Muhammad Ilyas and M. Fayyaz. All of them got married not once but twice
but had no children except a grand-daughter which lived for few years before
her infant death.

The local
people relate when her only grand-daughter died it was the only day when people
saw tears in his eyes and he wept bitterly leaning against a pillar inside the
Mahal. Broken, Shattered, dis-illusioned Shaikh Abdul Samad bequeathed all his
estate into a WAQF and anointed his Bhanja Mohammad Isa as the Mutawali and
successor.

The Great
zamindar of Niwan whose diktat ran over the people and their lives, was
suddenly reduced to a man living in a big, crumbling zamindari house, silent
and lost.

Conclusion

It was an
extremely misty and hazy morning when I reached Niwan. When I stood at the open
terrace towards the Ganges, I could spot the farmers going towards their lands,
Buffaloes and Cows on their job, Far aside like a painters art, the river Ganga
flowed towards Allahabad. I feel ecstatic to see green fields, baby goats, the
nimble breeze and most of all the burnt-red earth.

How beautiful it would have been to offer
prayers here and sit in silence, reading Quraan and meditating the world and hereafter,
pondering over the Ayats ( evidences) both within our self (anfas) and in the
horizons (Afaq).How enchanting it would have been to contemplate on the
microcosm & macrocosms the Ayah……but Ah ! We are far away from these
spiritual & mental exercises……………

Today the
Mahal is a ghostly place, I am sure there are more serpents and jinns that
human beings….the walls are crumbling and The major part of the massive complex
is in a monumental state of neglect.The present occupants are low on funds and are disturbed by the internal
strife & feud.

I am sure that
this historical building may deteriorate or even cease to exist, if no
concerted attempt is made for its maintenance and protection soon.

People were
telling me that here was the Ghadiyal , here stood two mace-bearers (Chobdar),
two darbans, and here was the Tam Tam,
Bagghi , Jhad Fanoos, Ghoda, Gadi, Naukar, Chakar, Munshi, Karinda , Gumashta,
Safa , Turra, Daon & Pech………..But I had least interest in listening to
these Tamashas……..Truly it was a Tamasha. Na who Tamasha raha , na tamashayi
Rahe !

Kya ab bhi wo
waqt nahi aaya ki hosh ke Nakhun len ?

And history
isn’t just stories without proof. There is physical evidence as well.

Quran says:

” Surely you pass by their ruins by
day and by night. Will you not use your common sense? (135-138; Surah Al-Saffaat)

Yet with all
the history God recites to us, it’s still clear that it will only be heeded by
those who believe those who are seeking God.

People asked
me there why are you doing all this? How
could I say that:

But I found living here in the Kothi three young chaps Zain , Azeem and Nabeel (sons of Muhsanat
Ahmad Urf Chand Bhai of Rohi , Damad of Anees Begum and Pasha Nawab) who are
the rays of hope……..Lets see what turns out to be………otherwise some 100 years
from now, if there happen to be another freak like me , he will tell you how
did all they fare and will connect you and tell you the next episodes of the
great epic of Niwan…………The show will go on………..

Till then its
Assalamu’alaikum from the desk of Khalid Bin Umar. May Allaah swt bless you , me and everyone of us with true Guidance.

Turab Ali of Neewan was employed somewhere in South
( Deccan). It happened once that upon his return from Deccan he was not
entertained/treated propely by his sisters-in-law. Having felt insulted he left
the house and went to Abubakarpur which was a Mazra of Niwan and constructed a
house there.For sometime he managed to live without a family but later on at
the suggestion of some people he married in Khuldabad which was obviously out
of Biradari and that became a big issue then 100 years ago. Outraged as he was
already, he eventually cut-off all ties from Niwan and took Abubakarpur as his permanent
abode and ever since his descendents are living here.

Abubakarpur inside

Abubakarpur2

Abubakarpur3

The Mosque in Abubakarpur

The residence of M.Fazal Sb

Turab Ali
migrated to Abubakrpur between 1860 -1880. Turab Ali had three sons, Afzal Ali,
Fazal Ali and Amanullah and these three are the forefathers of the present
occupants of Abubakarpur.

Fazal Ali had
Inayatullah who had Tajammul Husain who is the father of Muhammad Fazal, Ex
Governor of Maharastra & Mahmood Fazal.
From the same family came Anwarul Islam Urf Bedi as well.

Amanullah had
Ali Husain who had two sons Amirullah Urf Jhau Miyan and Ikramullah Urf Suddan Miyan.Ikramullah’s
son are Khalilullah and Zamirullah. Khalilullah (82) is still there.

Abubakrpur was
the actual belt of Guavas that made Allahabad famous all over the world. Later
on the urbanization took a heavy toll and the entire Guava belt disappeared
from earth and silk belt was introduced. It is very difficult to find Guava
Farms in Abubakarpur now.

Mr. M.Fazal (Ex- Governor Maharastra & Goa)

Today
Abubakarpur is proud of having produced Mohammad
Fazal (born July 2, 1922) who had a distinguished career both in the
private and public sector industries before the Centre picked him to nominate
as Governor. He read for his degree at University of Allahabad and later he had
his post-graduate education at the London School of Economics and in Political
Science from University of London.

In 1977, he
was appointed the Secretary of Industrial Development, Government of India,
served Planning Commission as its senior-most member from April 1980 till his
resignation in January 1985. Thereafter, Mr. Fazal was the founding chairperson
of Hughes & Hughes Chem Ltd.From April 1980 to January 1985. He was a
Member of National Defence Advisory Board of the Government of India from
December 1998 to November 1999 and then took over as Governor of State of Goa
on November 26, 1999 and finally became Governor of Maharashtra from October
10, 2002 to December 5, 2004.When I visited
Abubakarpur, he was quite unwell and hence we couldn’t have a meet!

1 comment:

I would like to congratulate you on this great research work. My name is Hasin Ahmed. I am eldest brother of Anis Fatima, the heiress of the property in Niwan. She is the widow of Pasha Mia.My younger brother Shameem Ahmed lives in Allahabad. I am currently based in Chicago. We will be in Karachi in Oct. and also intend to visit Allahabad.